By Jeff Aronow: Keith Thurman says former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder needs to give Tyson Fury a taste of his own medicine by being elusive and working more on the technical side of his game ahead of their trilogy match on October 9th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
With Wilder’s blazing hand speed and devasting power in his right hand, he could knock out Fury quickly if he’s able to land shots that he’s not prepared for.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) has already tried and failed to beat Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) on power alone, Thurman notes, and it’s not worked.
So instead of going back to what hasn’t been a success for Wilder, Thurman believes he needs to change his game to be just as elusive as Fury.
Deontay disguising his right hand better
The changes that Wilder has shown with his new trainer Malik Scott will be a real problem for Fury if he uses them during their fight.
With the changes Wilder has made, his right hand will be more devastating because he’s not telegraphing it like he’s done in the past.
In their two fights, Fury always knew when Wilder could unleash a right hand because he would wind up and throw it from a long way away. Fury was then able to make Wilder miss and then take advantage of his deficient inside game.
The footwork that Wilder has shown in his training clips with Malik shows that he’s making a lot of progress in a short period. Using that footwork while cloaking the right hand, it’s going to produce a lot of knockouts.
Fury’s rabbit punching needs to be controlled
Malik and Wilder need to speak to the referee before the fight to tip him off to watch for Fury’s habit of throwing rabbit punches.
There’s no use Wilder and Malik putting in all this hard work if Fury will foil it by openly cheating with rabbit punches.
The referee needs to be alerted to watch for Fury’s fouling and nip it in the bud immediately before he hurts Wilder badly as he did early on last time they fought.
Having great footwork will help Wilder, but it will not keep Fury in check with his rabbit punches.
The referee is the only one that can do that, which is why he needs to be told the importance of watching Fury.
Wilder must be elusive
“What is he training on? He’s training on setting things up a little bit more,” said Keith Thurman to ESNEWS about Deontay Wilder in his preparation for his trilogy match with Fury on October 9th.
“Not just milling it like, ‘Here it goes.’ Plus, he’s [Deontay] never fought anyone so elusive, so evasive.
“He’s also not fought somebody with a reach advantage over him,” Thurman said of the 6’7″ Deontay fighting the taller 6’9″ Fury.
“They’ve been in the ring. He has enough time to make adjustments. These are rematches. Rematches are on a different level back the Ali days back to the 60s and the 70s.
“Rematches are a different level. I’ve yet to do rematches in my career, but if I would have more experience because I understand that fighter and how they fight,” said Thurman.
“Give the guy a little bit of taste of his medicine,” said Thurman when asked what changes Wilder must make to defeat Fury. “Be a little bit more elusive yourself.”
Wilder using head and body movement around the ring will make things difficult for Fury, as he’s slow feet, and he’s always been able to take advantage of his opponents being stationary.
Wilder stood in front of Fury in both fights, making it easy for him to pick him off with his jabs and power shots.
In their rematch last year, Fury’s game was to roughhouse Wilder, hold him, lean on, and club him with rabbit punches.
Fury was able to do all that because Wilder was stationary, making it easy for him to use those tactics.
Obviously, it would have helped if the referee had done his job to address Fury’s rabbit punching, but it just seemed like he was there to do the minimal basics in officiating the fight.
Getting a quality referee that controls fouling can be difficult because many of them have a laissez-faire approach to the fights, letting the fighters foul and mainly only policing low blows.
Adding technique important
“Work on the things that you haven’t worked on before to challenge your opponent,” Thurman said. “As I said, if I have to fight Danny [Garcia] again, Shawn [Porter], or anyone again, I’m going to assume that I know what’s about to happen.
“That’s what rematches make you do. They make you assume that you already know this guy. So if this guy [Wilder] puts in the work to add dynamics.
“It’s like building a house and a mansion. You do it by building one brick at a time. You got this technique; add this technique.
“Spend a few more weeks on this technique. Work on your power and work on your speed until you are more of a total package.
“We will never have the total package, but tighten up and be as close as that total package as you can be,” said Thurman.
Fury might not realize it, but all the time that he’s given Wilder to improve by him getting COVID-19 and trying to squirm out of the trilogy by mistakenly believing that the rematch clause had expired, it could come back to haunt him.